


Falling Out Of Orbit; Or, The Perils Of A Toxic Fandom

by loosenoodlepoodledoodle



Category: LOONA (Korea Band)
Genre: Gen, Meta
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-28
Updated: 2021-02-28
Packaged: 2021-03-12 03:00:14
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 811
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29753043
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/loosenoodlepoodledoodle/pseuds/loosenoodlepoodledoodle
Summary: Yeojin's gotten curious in her old age. What have people been up to on the internet?Surely they haven't been thinking of...her?
Kudos: 11





	Falling Out Of Orbit; Or, The Perils Of A Toxic Fandom

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Between Breaths](https://archiveofourown.org/works/21165542) by [IzNonsense](https://archiveofourown.org/users/IzNonsense/pseuds/IzNonsense). 



> I wasn't sure how this would be received, so I put it in the anonymous collection. But nothing seems out of the ordinary, so...

“Choerry, can I talk to you for a minute?”

Yeojin was holding her smartphone out very earnestly.

“Sure, Yeojin. What’s on your mind?”

Yeojin showed Choerry the website.

“It’s a fanfiction site, and I was curious about how… _extreme_ the stories could get? So I deliberately searched for explicit stories featuring LOONA.”

“And…”

“Uh, I found some starring _me_. When I was still fourteen.”

Choerry’s voiceless response said all it needed to. Yeojin continued.

“There were two that struck me, in particular. One is pretty disgusting, the other almost innocent. Yet the response from Orbits was the same in both cases.”

Choerry, despite her misgivings, was mildly intrigued at the disparity.

“Go on.”

“So I’ll tell you about the nasty one, first. Basically, a bunch of older men come to a fan meet, and, uh, have their way with me.”

Choerry scoffed. “Sounds like it was written by a man.”

Yeojin laughed nervously. “I know, right? The second one, however…shipped me and you.”

One eyebrow on Choerry’s face became arched.

“We were sharing a bed at night, and in the story, I, like, get horny and fingerblast you. And that’s about it.”

Choerry tutted. “Well, I’m glad it didn’t turn into an orgy.”

Yeojin didn’t laugh this time. “In both cases, the comments were dominated by people demanding the stories be deleted, and condemning the authors. But I felt very differently about those comments. Like, the first story, I was so shocked to see it, that it felt good to see all those Orbits coming to my defense!”

“But for the other one?”

“For the other one, it felt like the Orbits were stepping over a line. I mean, in that story, my character wasn’t a victim of anything. Hell, the author even wrote a dedication or whatever, at the beginning, saying it was, like, for teenage girls who’d felt that way in real life. That’s what I meant by it being almost innocent.”

“So it could have actually been written by a teenage girl?”

“Yeah. And yet the comments were the same. They even looked like some of them were copied and pasted!”

“Wow.”

Here Yeojin had to pause to articulate her thoughts. “When I read the first story, the comments made me feel good, that they were defending me. But when I read the second one, the comments felt like they were _belittling_ me. That they were, I don’t know, taking possession of me, somehow? I mean, I know that’s a horrible way to describe it, given what happened in the first fic, but I can’t think of any other way to put it. The comments the second time were, like, speaking _for_ me, or in my stead. And because that story wasn’t victimizing me, at least not in the same way as the first…”

“I get it.”

Yeojin felt some relief, that Choerry understood her. “Then, when you think about part of LOONA’s message, especially the one Chuu and Yves put out…”

“Yeah, totally,” said Choerry. “The second story comports with it. And those Orbits tore it down.”

Yeojin scrunched her shoulders. “I don’t blame them, exactly. I mean, I am just a kid in that story, so it makes me feel a little uncomfortable. But God, treating it the same as that nasty one is false equivalency at its worst.”

Something stirred in Choerry’s mind. “How did they respond to my presence in the second story?”

Yeojin perked up. “Oh, they were just as upset. Called you a child, too.”

A dark look spread across Choerry’s face. “You remember my debut music video, right?”

Yeojin nodded. She had been in parts of it, of course.

“Half of it was sweet and innocent,” said Choerry, “then half of it was dark and sexy.”

“Uh-huh.”

“And if you were fourteen in those stories, then I would have been sixteen. The same age I was when the company dropped _Love Cherry Motion_.”

“Yup.”

“Do you remember those breathing sounds I made in the song? They weren’t very subtle.”

“Oh, yeah.”

Choerry crossed her arms. “I kind of resent other people being overprotective of my sexuality, when I was putting out a song like that when I was underage.”

Yeojin nodded again, more emphatically. “And I’ve been wanting us to do a sexy concept for years!”

“You know,” said Choerry, and now a touch of bitterness spilled into her voice, “in some ways, Orbits have been the greatest fans. They kept us going when times were toughest, when it looked like we could go on for no longer. And they really seem to love us. But sometimes I wonder…are we plateauing because of them?”

Yeojin felt a chill on the back of her neck. _The perils of a toxic fandom_ , she thought, and she was afraid to even say it out loud, for how ungrateful it made her sound.

**Author's Note:**

> I honestly don't understand why those two fics got singled out. You can find others in that kind of search, but they don't have the backlash that those two got.  
> And obviously, since I disapprove of one story, while regarding the other as basically harmless, I only listed the latter as inspiration for this work.


End file.
